We are pleased to announce that
third-year seminarian Yako Pavila has won the November 2010 “Sermon of the
Month” contest in the seminarian category hosted by the Preacher’s Institute.
Visit http://preachersinstitute.com/2010/11/14/homily-on-forgiveness/ to read
Yako’s homily on the parable of the unforgiving servant (Matt. 18:21-35). Yako
will receive a medallion from the Preacher’s Institute, which will be awarded
to him in a ceremony at the seminary chapel.

The Preacher’s Institute is
dedicated to improving Orthodox Christian preaching, providing homiletic
resources and examples of patristic and contemporary preaching. All homiletics
students at St. Herman Seminary will be submitting entries for this competition
each month. Incidentally, Fr. John Peck of the Institute is a graduate of St.
Herman Seminary as well as a former instructor. In addition to producing this
valuable preaching resource for Orthodox homilists, Fr. John serves as priest
of St. George Orthodox Church in Prescott,
Arizona.

Wishing to contribute to the
preaching tradition of our Church by such luminaries as St. John Chrysostom,
St. Herman Seminary offers three years of homiletics classes in our conviction
that Orthodox preaching is vital to our Church today. We encourage priests,
deacons, and seminarians (and other laymen) to enter this competition,
primarily to encourage others to improve their preaching for our ministry to
the Orthodox faithful in our Church.